I had the rare privilege of meeting Archbishop Anastasius twice, this colossal figure of the Orthodox Church, whose departure to the Eternal Light on January 24, 2025 deeply moved me. The first time in April 2024, it was during a location scout for a documentary dedicated to his life; the second, on November 4, 2024, his 95th birthday, where we interviewed him at length. These moments, engraved in my memory, revealed to me a man of touching fragility and elusive greatness, a true spiritual eagle whose wings embraced the entire sky.
When we last met, his body was marked by illness, but his mind, with prodigious clarity, transcended all weakness. Sitting opposite him, I perceived this authentic spirituality that emanated from every word, from every silence. He reminded me that Albania, land of eagles, carried within itself a living symbol: like the royal bird, it soared above borders, languages and divisions, carried by two powerful wings.
The first of these wings was his mastery of Orthodox theologya profound knowledge, the fruit of a life of study and contemplation. He spoke of it not as cold knowledge, but as a fire which illuminates and warms. The second, its evangelical commitmentwas rooted in the words of Christ at the Ascension: “Go, teach all nations…” (Matthew 28,19). He embodied this commandment to the end, in Albania as in Africa, building churches, but above all bridges between souls.
On his birthday, I understood that his strength lay precisely in his vulnerability. Like Saint Paul, he showed that “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12.10). Despite the fatigue, his eyes shone with an unalterable hope, and his hands, often joined in prayer, seemed to bless well beyond the room where we were.
He confided to me, with the gentle firmness that characterized him, that “faith must always be translated into concrete love”. This sentence sums up his fight: rebuilding a Church in Albania damaged by decades of state atheism, yes, but also feeding the poor, dialoguing with Muslims, Catholics, love without calculation. For him, each being was a nation to be sanctified, a spark to be rekindled.
Today, when he has reached the heights he was already contemplating, I think back to the way he spoke of the eagle: “He does not fear storms, he uses them to rise. » Bishop Anastasius has weathered the storms of the century – wars, totalitarian regimes, doubts – without ever bending.
To those who knew him, to Albania that he loved so much, and to all those touched by his example, I extend my fraternal condolences. May we, like him, keep eyes fixed on the essential and hands outstretched towards each other. The documentary that we produced to present Archbishop Anastasius will be broadcast on February 16 at 9:30 a.m. on France 2. In the meantime, you can see an extract below:
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Saint Anastasius the Great, pray for us!
Eternal memory.
P. Jivko Panev
